Local Government Elections

Further information:

Simultaneous election of the Lord Mayor, City Council, and District Representations, with three ballot papers and one vote each ("linked elections")

Election period:

five years

Entitled to vote

in Essen on 30 August 2009: 459.246

Subdivision of the city area

into 341 voting districts for voting and 41 local government election districts (01-42 without KWB 13) to nominate candidates for the council,

Election of the Mayor

directly elected according to the principles of majority election. The candidate who receives more than half of the validly cast votes is elected.

Council election:

In these elections, 41 direct candidates from the local government districts with a simple majority ("relative majority election") and 41 list candidates according to the share of votes cast for the individual political parties out of the validly cast votes in the entire city ("proportional election with initial majority election")

Election of district representations

Entitlement to vote:

Entitled to vote are German nationals and nationals from EU member states as from their 16th birthday, provided they have been registered as resident in Essen for at least 3 months before the election and are not otherwise excluded from the right to vote.

Entitlement to be elected:

Entitled to be elected onto the council and the district representations are all persons entitled to vote and aged 18 or over; candidates for the office of Mayor must be at least 23 years old.

Election results are determined

in accordance with the mathematical proportion method (so-called "Hare-Niemeyer" method).